


Ingrained Habits

by SilverFox89



Series: From Then to Now [18]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Living Together, M/M, concerned Neji who doesn't know how to help, getting on each others' nerves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 03:12:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3794512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverFox89/pseuds/SilverFox89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Living together means learning about the person you live with. It also means learning about things that annoy or concern you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ingrained Habits

**Author's Note:**

> 30 Day OTP Challenge for the Fluff Impaired Prompt #18: Bad Habits

Neji sighed softly as he came home to an empty house yet again. Ever since he'd moved in Shikamaru had taken up the habit of staying at his office in the Hokage Tower until late into the night to finish any paperwork that was immediately necessary for the Hokage or the Council to have. Supposedly this was to prevent Shikamaru from disturbing Neji's rest since, if the Nara was home, he would constantly be going in and out of his home office for coffee or something else over the course of the night as he worked. All it really did, however, was utterly annoy Neji. Sometimes all Neji wanted to do was come home from his missions, curl up around his lover and cuddle with the Nara for a little while. Was that too much to ask for? Apparently so since he would have to go and drag the Nara out of his office to do so.

 

* * *

 

When Shikamaru came home from a week long mission, two if you included travel time, all he wanted to do was shower and sleep. He knew he should probably eat as well but his stomach just wasn't settled enough for him to do so yet. A noise from the back, however, caught his attention. The moment the Nara identified the noise as Neji cussing uncharacteristically and the sound of water splashing Shikamaru closed his eyes in exasperation. He counted backwards from twenty and then he stalked around the house to the backyard to eye his significant other in extreme irritation. He'd known what he'd find before he had even seen the Hyūga. Seeing it just made it all the more real.

 

"Neji," Shikamaru's voice came out as a short, angry bark. He watched the other jump a little, startled by the Nara suddenly speaking, "go inside. I'll handle the damn laundry."

 

Neji looked back over his shoulder at Shikamaru and would have argued if not for the look on the Nara's face. He knew that it wasn't wise to further incite his lover's anger at this point in time. Especially when his lover's pissed expression was a very close replica of Nara Yoshino's own angry glare. Hyūga Neji did not have a death wish after all.

 

* * *

 

Neji woke up and rolled over to find Shikamaru's spot on the bed empty, yet again. It was the middle of the night and Neji did not understand why Shikamaru was up at this time as the Nara had been every night since he'd moved in. And that had been a little less than three months ago by now. He'd once asked Yoshino about the Nara's strange behavior but she had shaken her head and said that while she knew about his midnight activities she didn't know what caused them. Yoshino did know that it had started after Asuma's death. That gave Neji a large clue.

 

But no one knew anything about what had happened between Shikamaru and his sensei's murderer except for the fact that he'd come out of the fight alive and the S-ranked missing nin had not. Only the Nara himself knew and he wasn't talking. The Hyūga did, however, know where Shikamaru would be found when he inevitably went looking for him. Most of the time Shikamaru would be outside sitting on a chair at the edge of the front porch. Sometimes he stood in the yard, his breaths misting in the cold nighttime air.

 

But the one thing that never changed was the fact that Shikamaru would just stare off into the forest - fully dressed and geared up as if ready for war - every night without fail, a lit cigarette hanging from his lips and his back set in a straight, rigid line. During these times he never said a word, wouldn't even budge from his spot. The Nara never even so much as twitched unless it was to pull the cigarette away from his mouth and exhale the smoke caught in his lungs. Neji was honestly unnerved by these moments because when Shikamaru stared into the forest like that... The look in the Nara's eyes was like fire. An all consuming inferno that had no target - or perhaps it did, but that target was no longer unavailable - and no outlet. Eventually Shikamaru would stand up or walk back on to the porch and make his way inside where it was inevitable that the Nara would check every lock and every trap that was set in their house. Only after he was done ensuring that everything was as it should be would Shikamaru undress and come back to bed.

 

Neji just wished that the Nara would talk to him about whatever it was that constantly had Shikamaru so on edge that he had to seek midnight solitude instead of sleep.

 

* * *

 

There was sunlight on him. That was the first thing Shikamarunoticed when he first woke up. Normally this wouldn't bother the Nara. Normally he wouldn't even notice it. But this morning and every other morning before it since Neji had moved in? The fucking window shades were left open. Shikamaru had once had a system where he woke up just before the alarm clock went off. It had worked very well for him for years.

 

Now, however, he had sunlight in his eyes every damn morning long before the clock was set to go off. Shikamaru knew that Neji was an early riser, but come on! Literally being up with the sun was more than just a little bit ridiculous. Especially on their days off. Shikamaru decided that he would definitely be teaching Neji how to close the window shades before they went to bed from now on. Even if it was the last thing he did.

**Author's Note:**

> I bet all of you know what Shikamaru's up to. Scary, pissed Shikamaru isn't someone I want to meet in a dark alley.


End file.
